Common Workflow Tasks for Awarded / Approved Status

Contents

Overview

A [Overview|Workflow] is a set of repeatable steps used to automate and streamline your business processes within the system (e.g. creating review forms and notifying reviewers via email).

Use case

Once your application hits a specific status, there may be a handful of activities that need to be created or fields that need to be updated in order for the application to move to the next status. By using various workflow tasks, you can have all these tasks completed automatically, simplifying your granting process.

Example:

Once an application is moved to the Approved Status - you want to create a payment activity, a few report activities, send an email to the applicant, and update the Approved Date field.

Some applications may have already been in the Approved Status but were sent back for review or updates. In this case, you don't want applications that have already gone through the Approved Status workflow to repeat the tasks listed above once their status is updated to Approved again. In this case, you will configure the workflow to bypass the create new activity and email tasks and only update the Approved Date field.

Configuration - Essentials

Creating a  New Workflow

• Create a new workflow by clicking the plus button on the workflows home page.

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• Select Workflow Type: The type will dictate what information/fields will be available when creating tasks - You can select different UTA’s, levels, contacts, organizations etc… as your workflow type. 
• Name the workflow and add it to a Category   
  1. Suggested naming convention: Activity Level (1/2/3) - Goal/Status 
     1. EX: L1 - Approved Status 
  2. Categories are created by your organization. We suggest creating categories based on the UTA and Record Level. 
     1. EX: Application Manager L1
• Add a description for your workflow. 
  1. Include a list of tasks and branching conditions for ease of review later. 
  2. Add notes to your workflow if you make changes to it. 

• Set the Trigger-On
  1. This dictates what status or stage of the record will set this process in motion.
  2. Depending on the workflow type, you will be selecting from a list of statuses or activities. 
  3. For our example, we will be triggering our workflow when a record hits the Approved status. 

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*Tip* → You can build your workflow on your production system first and test it on your backup the next day. Make sure to set the Trigger-on to Deactivate so the workflow won’t run. Once your workflow appears in your backup, you can set the Trigger-On to the correct status and test your workflow without worrying about impacting your production environment. 

 

Configuration - Advanced - Creating Tasks

*Best Practice* →  Create all of your workflow tasks before connecting the tasks. 

Creating Your First Task

• Navigate to the Task tab found on the left side of your screen. 

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• To create a new task → Click on the plus sign button found on the top left corner of your screen (highlighted in image above). 
  • We suggest creating an Acknowledgment as your first task type. 
  • Name this task Placeholder. 
    • This task will not have a function but will indicate that a workflow has started when looking through workflow history/logs on the record that has passed through this process.

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Creating Your Remaining Tasks (2-4)

• Task 2 – Create Payment Record 
  • Task Name → Create Payment Record 
  • Task Type → Create New Activity 
  • Select the activity type you want to create and the default status the activity should be created in. 

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• Under the scheduling tab → configure the L2 activity to meet your requirements. Not all fields listed in this section need to be configured - it will depend on the activity type.

→ Start Date / End Date: Choose the date fields that will determine the start and end date of the activity scheduling period. 

→ You can set the frequency the activity is scheduled - activities will be created immediately, but the date will take the frequency into account. Note that activities will only be automatically scheduled within the time frame set above. 

→ Select the field from the grant application that contains the grant amount. This value will then be split equally between all payment activities being scheduled. 

→ You can also select the field where the amount of each payment will be stored - note that the total amount will be divided equally between all of the activities. 

→ Select the date field that will determine the scheduled activity date.

 

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Note: If you do not see a Scheduling Tab → make sure to toggle on advanced options found near the top right of your screen. 

 

Appendix

Options and Settings

Common Tasks

Task Type	Description	Example
Acknowledgment	This Task will allow you to send messages to users in SmartSimple	Sending an email to an applicant.
Update Custom Field Value	This Task will allow you to update the value of one or multiple custom fields	Update the Approved Date field on a record to the current date.
Update Standard Field Value	This Task will allow you to update the value of one or multiple standard fields
Create New Activity	This Task will allow you to generate a new L2 record associated with your L1 record	Generate a Progress Report activity for a grant application.
Generate PDF File	This Task will allow you to generate a pdf of a record.	Generate a pdf of an application after it has been submitted.

Display Settings

Option	Description	Example